1. Chapter 13 asks you to consider the multitudes a word's meaning as well as the importance of dialect and tone. After taking the NY Times dialect test (included under required resources), tell us whether or not you think the results are accurate. What, if anything, surprised you about the test and its results?

2. I'd like you to closely read "Oxygen" by Mary Oliver on page 373 and provide an original response to the poem. In your response, I'd like you to consider denotation (the dictionary definition of a word), connotation (the associations one brings to a word), and tone (the speaker's attitude toward the subject matter). Though this is a poem about someone who is seriously ill, its tone isn't sad. Why? In what sense might this celebration of oxygen be considered a love poem?